It seems so dreamlike now. Whose idea was it to go on a five-day trip to the east coast and then immediately go on a five-day trip just as far the other direction? After 8 plane flights in 13 days, a total 6-hour time-zone shift, and the red-eye flight home, my eyeballs were rolling in different directions by the time we got back on Tuesday morning.

After a nap I plunged headfirst into an appliqué project, because while I was at Market I was lucky enough to pick up a magazine assignment, and the deadline is way soon. So I’ve been head down, face first in hand appliqué for four days. I just finished the hand stitching, so I feel like I can take a breath.

Okay, my pictures from Market. Other bloggers did way better than me at documenting the beautiful sights, colors, and textures of all of the beautiful booths. Check out Bunny Tales, Blue Moon River, and Lizzy B Cre8ive for wonderful accounts of Spring Market. But I did get few a cool things on my camera.

The day before I left for Pittsburgh, I went to the post office to pick up a mystery package. Turned out it was from my friend Kim Jamieson-Hirst in Calgary. She send me a custom made bag, just for Market! In fact, it’s called Kay’s Market Bag. How sweet! She photo-transferred the cover of my book onto the front, and on the back is the Quilt Puppy. This bag is the perfect size to hold my postcards, so I festooned ‘the beast” with it and then not only was my book cover on display as I dragged the beast with me wherever I went, my postcards were very handy when I needed one. Thank you Kim! I treasure this. Kim tells me that the pattern for this bag will be available soon!

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My Schoolhouse presentation wasn’t until 4:45 p.m. on the day before the floor opened, so I had lots of time to watch the exhibits going up. It’s amazing the beehive of activity that goes on at these venues. It looks all pretty and perfect when the doors open, but during setup, what a tangled mess! It’s so exciting to be there and watch it all come together.

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Amazingly, they lay the carpet individually for each event. Those are rolls of carpet against the back wall that will eventually cover every bit of walking area.

The first day, one of my missions was to find the Maywood Studio booth and take pictures of my friend Janet Locey‘s quilts.

When I say find Maywood Studio, I meant hunt.

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I couldn’t resist zooming in with my camera on this side, since my quilt ‘Blooms in Red and Yellow’ from Easy Appliqué Blocks was hung in the Martingale booth so that it had perfect viewing from the skywalk. Can you see it, right in the middle?

Fortunately the aisles are numbered with huge overhead signs. There’s just so much packed into that huge room that without the signs you could never find anything you were looking for. But, armed with a directory, I searched out Maywood and found Janet’s quilts, which she made especially for Spring Market using Maywood’s new Paisley fabric.

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This quilt is called ‘Across the Pond’ and it has turtle pincushions with it. Maywood did such a cute job of draping the quilt over a trunk and placing the turtles on top of it and on a log in front.

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The wonderful quilt behind the Maywood Studio sales table is Janet’s pattern ‘The Birds & the Bees’. Janet fussy-cut the bird wings from the paisley shape.

Friday and Saturday went by in a happy blur. On Friday I did a book signing at the Checker Distributors booth and it was so much fun! One of the gals said that it was the best-attended signing they’d had all day. The books went fast and so did the time. I heard that one of the Martingale staff was taking pictures but I didn’t even notice, If they send me any, I’ll put one up here.

I visited several times with Maria Peagler, who was at Market introducing shop owners to her fabulous book Color Mastery. I also talked quite a bit with the Lizzie B Cre8ive gals, Beth and Liz.

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Their booth was like a square plot of fairlyland plopped down in the convention center. I managed to get my picture with both of their backs turned. That’s Beth on the left and Liz on the right. They’re sisters-in-law who share the exact same name and one of the cutest pattern companies ever. They’ve won the award for Most Creative Booth two Markets running. There are great pix on their blog.

Beth and Liz just came out with their first book, Whimsyland, from the Kansas City Star. Be sure to go take a look at it on the Lizzie B website!

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While I was at their booth one time, Liz said, “Allow me to introduce you to Terry.” Terry is the woman sitting down at the little table. Then Liz said, “Terry, show Kay your name tag, because you’re a very famous person.” Terry showed me her name tag and wow, it was Terry Clothier Thompson. Just like that, I met Terry Clothier Thompson. That’s the kind of thing that happens at Market.

A lot of other cool things happened too, and I’ll write more about them when their times come. I also picked up some samples of new products that I’m itching to try out for appliqué and I’ll let you know how that goes. And, I have a few designers and pattern companies to add to the blogroll lists.

Coming up… my visit to the Kapaia Stitchery on Kauai!

Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs

I’m home for one day. Today is actually my 20th wedding anniversary. I should show you a picture of me and the DH Dana but actually right now I look like something the cat dragged in. Got home from Pittsburgh last night at midnight and today is my one day to do the laundry and pack again for our anniversary trip to Kauai tomorrow!

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I had THE most fabulous time at Spring Market and I do have a few pictures to share when I get home and my head stops spinning. In the meantime, here’s a typical market story. On Saturday, I’m in the ladies’ room when another gal eyes me, yells “Kay!’ and charges forward. I get a look at her just in time to recognize Kathy Mack of Pink Chalk Studio and reply, “It’s a miracle!” before we were able to give each other a big hug. Kathy has been an internet pal and she participated in my Book-A-Round, but this is the first time we had met in person.

We left the ladies room and started chatting in the lobby. We were just saying, “Now how are we going to find Susan?” when Susan Brubaker Knapp herself of Blue Moon River, another Book-A-Round blogger, approached. Kathy and Susan had met up the year before but this was my first chance to meet either one of them. It was just one of those kismet things, and such a happy occurrence. We were so excited, we chattered like magpies.

So when I say ‘Let Susan do it,” I mean go to her Blue Moon River blog and read her fabulous posts about Quilt Market. She’s already got a wonderful one done with lots of pictures, including one of the three of us!

Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill also has fabulous and funny Market posts.

Aloha,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs

Back on March 9, when I brought this article series up to the time that
Easy Appliqué Blocks went to press last November, I promised I would write a little more about stuff that happens after that.

A lot happens. An author’s work is never done. Fortunately, this is happy work!

Since the book went to press, I’ve:

Downloaded cover images and back-cover copy from the Martingale website.

Designed and ordered postcards.

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Sent postcards to contacts at distributors, catalogs, magazines, and quilt shops, plus friends, family, and the Martingale staff.

Studied Martingale’s Author Promotional Handbook.

Created a list of my Favorite Tools & Notions, available for download at Quilt Puppy or Martingale.

Created a separate list of my Favorite Tools & Notions just for quilt shops, with distributor stock numbers included… available for download at Quilt Puppy.

Updated my website.

Pitched to Martingale that we could make the Table of Contents, Introduction, and How to Use the CD available as a download — they thought it was a good idea too, and it’s available at Quilt Puppy or Martingale.

Organized and conducted a blog book tour.

Written interview answers for a couple stops on the tour.

Signed a bunch of Martingale bookplates and sent them out to friend quilt shops.

Purchased a MacBook laptop so I can demo the book’s CD.

Made travel plans for Spring Quilt Market in Pittsburgh, May 15-17, 2009. (More info below)*

Been given the green light to do a Schoolhouse presentation at Market.

Written a short blurb for the Schoolhouse brochure.

Written copy for the Schoolhouse flier that’s handed out to attendees.

Put together packaging for the Schoolhouse handouts… Kay’s Favorite Tools & Notions, flier, postcard, and chocolate (that never hurts) in a white paper bag with a cute sticker.

Worked on my Schoolhouse presentation.

Gotten the green light for a book signing at the Checker Distributors booth.

Edited copy for the Checker handout.

Started an Amazon Connect blog… you can see it on the book’s detail page.

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Stitched up another Scottie quilt (Martingale is borrowing the original for awhile).

And that’s not even everything! It’s just the major identifiable things. So, as you can see, a book needs a lot of support even after the production phase is done. Is this interesting to read about? Had you thought of this type of thing?

*Now here’s a little explanation here if you’re not familiar with the model of International Quilt Market.

This huge quilting-industry trade show happens twice a year. In the fall it’s always in Houston, and in the spring it travels. The attendees are largely shop owners, and the exhibitors are companies that create books, patterns, tools, notions, fabrics, etc. for quilt shops. The day before the show opens on the floor, there’s a day of breakout sessions for shop owners called “Schoolhouse.” These sessions are short presentations intended to introduce shop owners to new and interesting books and products.

Spring Market 2008 was in Portland, and I attended. At that time I already had the book contract and was working on the editing process with Robin. I attended a bunch of Schoolhouse sessions to find out what they were all about, and by the time I was ready to go home my head was brimming with ideas of what I would say to shop owners about Easy Appliqué Blocks if I had the chance. All the way home on the plane I wrote notes, and when I was done I had the whole outline for a Spring 2009 Schoolhouse presentation! Now, a year later, it’s almost time… wish me luck!

Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs

I’m not one that’s at all talented at the arty photography, don’t ya know. But I may have taken my first arty picture, by accident.

Four Roses quilt by Kay MackenzieThis is Four Roses, a wall quilt that I made using one of the designs from Easy Appliqué Blocks after the book went to print.

I followed all that good advice about taking the photo outdoors in the shade, taping it up on my sliding-glass door and taking the photo whilst standing outside on the patio. Here’s what emerged… not only does the quilt look like it’s floating in space, there’s a really cool double exposure effect of the patio being reflected in the glass, plus, you can see inside the house a little bit too! If you look closely you’ll see cat Pixel snoozing on the sofa.

This quilt was machine appliquéd using fusible web and a small machine blanket stitch.

Until next time,
Kay
Quilt Puppy Publications & Designs